The Educational Specialist degree (Ed.S.) in Counseling is a planned program of a minimum of thirty (30) semester hours above the master's degree under the direction of a major advisor and two committee members. One of the committee members is from a non-counseling discipline.  The Educational Specialist degree in Counseling is designed to provide advanced course work in school counseling, community counseling, rehabilitation counseling, and student development. Many students enrolled in Educational Specialist degree programs are seeking higher levels of certification or licensure.

Students who completed a master’s degree from a non-CACREP program will be required to complete, from Mississippi State University, any course work that MSU students take as part of the CACREP approved master’s program in counseling. These courses may be included in your Educational Specialist Degree Program of Study. Students from an academic discipline that was from a related field may be required to complete the equivalent of a master’s degree as part of the Ed.S. program of study.

Departmental Educational Specialist Degree Requirements.

1. To be accepted for the Educational Specialist's degree program, students must have a master’s degree in counseling or related field (as determined by program emphasis), a recommended minimum GPA of 3.3 on all graduate course work, a recommended minimum GRE (V+Q) of 800, and a recommended minimum GRE Analytic Writing score of 3.0 (on a 6-point scale).  To be accepted for the school counseling emphasis, applicants also must pass the PRAXIS I (or hold a standard educator license from the Mississippi Department of Education).

2. Twenty-one (21) semester hours must be earned at MSU.  A maximum of nine (9) semester hours may be transferred from another institution or from off-campus/resident centers of Mississippi State University.

3. Students must establish academic residency at MSU. Residency may be established by
   (a) enrolling at MSU for one semester of full-time study (minimum of nine hours),
   (b) two semesters of half-time study (minimum of six semester hours each semester),
   (c) one summer of full-time study (minimum of nine semester hours), or
   (d) one summer of half-time study (six semester hours) and one semester of half-time study (six semester hours).

4. Complete all CACREP/CORE course work requirements of master’s level counseling program area.

5. EPY 6214 Ed./Psy. Statistics (or equivalent statistics course).

6. Planned applied research involving analysis of original data:
   (a)  Thesis (six hours credit, final document  placed in MSU library, required adherence to Guidelines for Thesis/Dissertation from the Office of Graduate Studies, strict APA writing style, etc.),
   OR
   (b)  Directed Study (three hours credit, final document placed in student’s office folder, less formal in-house document Guidelines for Thesis/Dissertation not required).  A detailed description of the directed study may be printed in "pdf" format.

7. In addition to completing all CACREP/CORE  course work requirements in a master's degree, each program area may specify nine (9) semester of required course work to be completed as part of the Ed.S. degree program.